3 STILL STATELESS, STILL DETAINED Many stateless persons in Europe have claimed asylum, sometimes simply because in the absence of a statelessness determination procedure, this was the only option open to them to try and regularise their stay. In the event of asylum being refused (whether rightly or wrongly), many stateless persons are exposed to arbitrary long-term detention precisely because, lacking a nationality, they most likely cannot be removed as no other state will accept them. In some cases an individual’s statelessness will only become apparent following unsuccessful efforts by a host state to re-document them during an attempted deportation process. Recent research by UNHCR has revealed the long-term detention of stateless persons to be a problem in several European countries (available at www.refworld.org/statelessness.html). The detrimental impact on stateless persons - both before, during and after detention - can be severe and is completely avoidable, as evidenced by these testimonies. LUKA Luka was born in Ukraine when it was still a part of the former USSR. After growing up in an orphanage, he moved to Slovakia in 1991 when he was only 15 years old. He has never possessed any documents establishing a nationality. As a result, since becoming an adult, Luka has been repeatedly detained in Slovakia, including while police investigated the possibility of removing him to Ukraine. However, such attempts have proved fruitless because Ukraine refuses to accept him as a national. On the last occasion Luka was detained for 14 months in 2010. When ordering his release the court found that his expulsion from Slovakia was not possible and Luka was finally granted tolerated stay. However, his problems are far from over. Despite having lived in Slovakia for over 20 years, Luka is still not recognised as being stateless and his tolerated stay status does not allow him to work or to have health insurance. He cannot marry his partner or be registered officially as the father of his son. Recently his application to renew his tolerated stay was refused due to his inability to submit new documents from the Ukrainian embassy. He was subsequently fined for his illegal stay. This cycle shows no sign of ending. Provided by the Human Rights League, Slovakia